Massive Soil Improvement Using Leaf Mulch 

Very good video - you covered this excellently and the results are inarguable. Thank you - I will re-share this one.

Great video. When I was a youngster in Maryland, we had a tomato patch, maybe 4 feet by 50 feet, along the backside of the house. This was back in the 70's-80's. Heavy heavy red clay soil on our 4 acres. Every fall my father would make me rake leaves, for hours and hours on end. We'd do it on Sunday, after church. We'd pile those leaves onto the tomato patch and water them. Then we'd turn them into the soil, yes using a shovel. We'd pile them a foot thick. My father would have me double dig, if you know what that is. Then in early May, we'd go out and turn the top layer, single dig. The soil got darker and darker every year (over the course of 15 years of my child labor lol). We grew the very best tomatoes. Always Burpees Big Boy. Never added any other amendments. No fertilizer, no lime, no calcium. It's not until you're older, that you realize how smart your parents were. What I wouldn't give for those delicious Maryland tomatoes now.

I take my battery powered leaf blower around to green spaces in my city during the fall months and just scoop all the leaves I can. (Much to the horror of my teenager) but it’s a free resource and I’m more than happy to tell anyone who inquires about my activity,that I’m gathering leaves for my garden.

My family has always, my grandfather taught my Dad and he taught me, to put grass clippings under our trees. This was done in a circular manner to about 4-5 ft. out from tree trunk. This was done all summer long. About September the grass clippings were raked up into a circular mound surrounding the trees. When the leaves fell the yard was mowed and everything bagged was placed into the center of the grass dam. Having been mowed the leaves were so heavy the wind did not blow them out of the circle. Every year we have had new black soil under our trees, and they love it. Snow Ball tree goes crazy every year. In the spring, snows have pounded grass clippings and leaves down to nothings and time to start over. The circle of grass clippings prevents weeds from growing under the trees and also you don't mow so close to trunk of tree to damage the tree bark.

I took my truck and filled it with leaf bags people were throwing away last year and dumped them in a pile in my backyard and they have produced a ton of free compost for me. Cheers from Ottawa, Canada 🍁

this is one of the best videos I've seen on the subject.... the large span of time covered and the direct comparisons really give a clear cut illustration of this process .... thank you for your time...

This is a great video about how to use leaf mulch. One thing a lot of people don't think about is that many beneficial insects lay eggs / overwinter in the leaf layer, so shredding them can hurt your local ecosystem in the springtime. We always rake the leaves into our garden areas, but I only shred a small portion of them.

So important for people to know about organic matter & its relationship with water retention. Always happy to see people sharing this knowledge.

you see how beautiful the forest floor is, year after year of building up leaves is perfect.

Yes! Thanks for this content! I did this very thing with some extras this fall as a grand experiment to improve my crappy garden soil. I did it for several reasons: 1) free, 2) deep mulch system has been a great garden method, 3) composting in place, 4) to improve my soil with organic matter, improve tilth, 5) to bring more worms and 6) to suppress weeds over the winter. Because I have really poor soil, I chose to lasagna layer the good stuff. I had cardboard already down, added a layer of straw/hay over the summer, a layer of rotten horse manure, a layer of chicken manure mixed with hay and finally, a layer of leaves. All combined, it's about 6 inches deep and though it's only been a couple months, I can already see tons of worms at work. Very encouraging! I collected everything for free, so with any luck, 2021 will be an exceptional garden year!

I had begun doing this and now I will continue thank u

I have the same feelings when Autumn begins. I eagerly await “Leaf Harvesting” season.

Happy new year, hope you have a great 2021 growing season!

I have been using leaf mulch since my first real veg garden back in 1979, I still is the best fertilizer money doesn't buy. :) Thank you. I just finally got up the verve to ask my new neighbor if I could scoop up their leaves in their back yard. Tomorrow is the day..

Thank you so much for this, and thank you for documenting literally 2 years of doing so. This answers so many questions for me.

This is a great video! I piled a huge layer of leaves in my raised beds in October. Very excited to see the results this summer.

I only have a 20 x 20 ft garden and I have been growing vegetables for the past 30 plus years. Using the typical npk fertilizer. Last year I started read and watching videos on Korean natural farming. I decided it was worth a try. This is the method I used. In the fall instead of having leaves hauled away I purchased a Worx leaf shredder. It has an 11 to 1 ratio turns 11 bags of leaves into one. Instead of rototilling I just used a pitch fork to aerate the soil. I got a load of free wood chips. I measured out my beds with 2 ft walkways. I piled on about 6 to 10 ins of leaves in my beds and the wood chips in the walk ways. I make a microbial liquid in 5 gal buckets and drenched the leaves. Then covered it with a heavy duty landscape material and let it sit all winter. In the early spring I added a now broken down compost of leaves garden waste and food waste to the. Beds. I also have two large tumblers which were filled with the blackest soil I’ve ever seen. Did another soil drench covered again until planting which was about 4 to 6 weeks off. Best garden I’ve ever had. No insect problems, 99% weed free and I didn’t need to purchase fertilizer. Every 2 to 3 weeks I added more microbes. I made fertilizer from comfrey leaves, I have a dozen plants. Comfrey is amazing, I put a small piece of root in the ground and was harvesting in 3 months. I’ve harvested 4 times this year, it just keeps coming and the leaves are huge. Stinks to high heaven but leave it open a few days and the smell dissipates. This year I added one more process to my garden, Bokashi. Fermenting all my food waste in a5 gal Bokashi bucket in my house. It ferments everything, bread, pasta, meat, fish. That will be put in my compost pile and tumblers. This year was the first time I tried growing Fig trees from cuttings. I made my own soil and used the Korean farming method on them. 25 cuttings, 23 tree grew. I put 8 in the ground and 4 in pots the rest I gave to my family and sold. I grew 12 varieties and they tend to grow at different rates. By the end of the season the smallest was 3 ft the tallest 7 ft and that one in a pot. On top of all that I got to eat figs from growing a stick in the first year. I am totally sold on Korean Natural Farming. Feed the soil not the plant.

I live in a sandy loam area. The sand layer is also shallow. Happen to come across a mere mention of the benefits of using wood ash to improve the quality of clay soils. Wood ash breaks the components that makes clay a sticky clump. Last year I dug out a 16'× 4' raised bed. I put aside the dug up dirt to load the trench with rotten wood then layered the wood with cardboard. All of this was done to establish a tall supportive base for my raised bed. I had saved about 50 lb bag of wood ash from a wood burning stove. The soil from the trench was mostly clay. So I applied a generous helping of wood ash as I refilled my raised bed. On the final layers I started to add compost with the dirt. 4months later as I pulled the spent vegatables plants off I noticed a big improvement . The clay had turned into a great loamy soil. The compost helped but as you showed here. The change din not reach deep enough. This year try using wood ash on your garden plot. Wood ash is high in potassium which promotes root growth. Just sharing.

So I just went out into my raised bed to see how badly I ruined it last year. I had tons of little runner roots that were growing up into the bed last year. i thought I was going to have to remove it all and fill it with garden soil. It sits about 30" tall. I filled it with sticks some rotten, some green, leaves and some leftover potting mix to fill the bed last year. So in October I just piled some left over leaves in and figured I would check it in spring.Because it really didn't do a whole lot for me...I thought. But after your video, I moved over the leaves I put in and this smoke started pouring out. It was so warm and dark and full of those white flecks in there. I was thinking of taking this stuff to spread out over my beds this year. Would have never thought of it without your video. TONS of info here - great video!!

Love your videos and straightforward style. Never change!!

Thank you!!! I just bagged my last fall leaves ever!!!! Never again! Please keep the videos coming!!!

Great video! Glad I'm not the only nutcase collecting leaves when others are busy trying to get rid of them. I use them in my compost bin, uncut, and in that case you really want to mix them well with other material, otherwise they tend to form an oxygen deprived layer. (Turning the bin fixes all of that in one go though). One more tip would be to keep an eye on seeds when collecting leaves. There are some birches next to my garden, and they drop a huge amount of small seeds, therefor I don't collect in that area.

I absolutely love your gardening content. Keep it up!

What a Great Service to the new wave of gardeners. You are thorough and patient. Thank You Brother

I started this up last year in my shade garden. It really helped with the weeds.

Thank you so much for the comprehensive examples you shared. Much appreciated. It’s Nov 21, the maple leaves have recently fallen & im making a new deep bed. Love the before & after results. Very helpful.

One of the best video ever on this subject! Thank you

Excellent video. Great information, clearly showing the benefits. Nice mix of theory and practical application. I've always had to shake my head at all those bags of leaves out on the curbs. Thanks.

Great video. I was thinking about doing this last fall and certainly regret not doing it. I’ll certainly do it this fall.

Great video, I do this every year here where I live in the suburbs. Been doing this for five years now and my garden keeps getting better. This definitely Works!

Very thorough, well-paced, well presented, science- backed content. Just subscribed! Have been binging your videos and love it. Keep up the great work!

Love love LOVE your soil videos!! Thank you so much from north of Toronto. ❤Keep up the GREAT work pleeeeease. …. u have a clear cut no BS way of teaching and u r really REALLY good at sharing your experience and wisdom!

I’ve done this for years in my Sandy soil, the results have been incredible. It’s crazy how fast that deep pile of leaves disappear

Perfect! I have been carting my leaves to the curb. I now have a 20 x 20 ft garden and a compost pile. Figured I'd use some leaves this fall for brown layers and now the rest I will mulch up and put in the garden. Great information. Thanks

You are getting me excited to get back into this hobby.

I am using my leaves this year for my garden next year and forever. Thank you.

Great video. And thanks for talking about black walnut leaves didn't know that.

I've got garden eyes now too... it's kinda funny how you start to change and see things differently...James prigione , think that's how spell it describes it too when he goes out looking for stuff

This is something I've thought about trying and you made me want to get started

This definitely works. Used to do it at my old place and all of my neighbors knew I would take their leaves off of their hands.

I started organic gardening in the mid '50s. I had to compost leaves because they didn't break down readily and kept soil from breathing. I had no way to shred. In the '90s I bought an electric vacuum/shredder, 15-1. It was so much better/quicker than composting. And my garden grew better, with less weeding when using shredded leaf mulch. I learned from experience: SHREDDED LEAF MULCH is the best soil builder/feeder. Don't garden without it.

Good video. Leaves are a great source of nutrients as well as a conditioner for your soil. I do till my leaves into the soil at the end of the season. I also add a large amount of grass clippings to offset the nitrogen depletion. Grass clippings act as a slow release fertilizer close to the equivalent of a 4-1-2 fertilizer. During the spring and summer months, I lay grass clippings around all my plants. This virtually eliminates any weeds, adds nitrogen and moisture to the soil, and in the cooler nights of spring adds a little warmth to the plants. As the clipping dry, they create a weed barrier and block the summer sun from drying out the soil. Leaves are great, but leaves combined with grass clippings are the one two punch. After five years at a new location, my garden soil is pitch black and easily tillable to 12 inches. I was taught this method by my late father who grew up in the depression and had gardens his whole life. You'll be surprised by the output of produce from your plants. Plus it's great to spend only a few minutes a day picking out a stray weed here and there.

No nonsense, no Electronic noise [background 'Music'] well explained and informative.

Great succinct video answering questions I had about practical implications of using leaf mulch in my market garden, thanks!

Next up, add fall and winter crops to keep a living root in the soil year round. Move pepper plants into pots for the winter because they are perenial in warmer climates.

Good morning from England. This is an excellent video and I wish I had known about the benefits of using leaves in this way plus a whole lot of other things connected with no dig (till) gardening, years ago. I will definitely collecting lots of bags of leaves this autumn and spreading it over my vegetable garden. I look forward to looking at your other videos and how your garden will grow this coming season.

Excellent demonstration. Thanks. Merry Christmas! 🎄

Great video!! I'm adding leaves to my garden for the first time this year. I really appreciate the in depth video. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing this,because my husband never think the leaves it good for the garden but l do

Started doing this, this fall. My neighbor pitched in his leaves for me too! Looking forward to seeing the difference this spring!

I guess I really didn't know much before watching this video, very informative, straightforward, and simple. 👏👏👏 thank you for sharing and teaching. 👍

100% agree. Adding leaves to my ornamental beds changed the soil for the better and keeps down weeds amazingly well.

Been doing this for two years and it really makes a huge difference on the garden. I have 3 big maples and a popular tree, run the mulching blade over the yard then my sweeper and dump and spread out to about 8 inches deep.Add all my coffee grounds and filters, the amount of earth worms are amazing.

So glad to see this video. I did actually what you did last year without knowing if it would help or not. Saw a slight difference this spring. My garden soil is very dark in color but compacts just like your clay soil. I will continue to use the leaves and hope for even better soil next year. Thanks

My garden is surrounded by oak tree's, every November all the way through to April I am raking up leaves shelling/s /twigs every day ! I am a pensioner, so it keeps me active! I started storing all these leaves in a deep 8x8 pit and it took 3 years before they decomposed which is really such a long time! But yeah I gave all the decomposed leaf mould to my earth/gardens and I had a great show this summer! I stopped storing the leaf's now as the time factor is so long and The heap of leaves attracted flies which made their way into the house! My wife likes having the windows open, so she nagged me about the composed heap, so now I make my own fertiliser from fruit skins, egg shells, peelings/weeds etc! It stinks, but the bucket is away in a corner of the garden far from our house! I fed my tomato's and carrots, strawberries with it and they loved it, great crop. Now if needing a top up for my soil, I collect earth (leaf mould ) that has turned into compost from the woods near by, just remove the top layer and dig down! As you said - it's free!

Thank you so much for your valuable information, God bless you and your family and keep you prosperous

I've seen a few of your blogs randomly & enjoyed them, and with this one I just want to tell you how much I appreciate the simplicity & clarity of your illustration and the normal plain conversational tone even though you're really doing science. 😉 Refreshing. I'm just a yard gardener like who loves working hard and making things better, as much DIY(M) as possible. I tried leaf mulch last fall on a previously neglected bed - having decided that what I wanted to do is just plant for pollinators, and get some vines and bloomy perennials well started in spring, but not use ferts. For some reason, I was afraid to put too much leaf on, not really realizing that in addition to improving the soil, I could be hot composting & pre-killing weed seeds. The leaf mulch definitely improved the soil quality, along with the spring addition of my own organic compost cooked all winter. The results with the perennials I started were encouraging enough to vouch for this method with all its benefits & I will definitely be adding more this fall. Unfortunately we lost our 3 largest maples recently to storm damage, but there are plenty more around. Thanks for your great content. 👍

I always get my neighbors leaves in the fall. It has made a huge difference in my garden soil. It pays to shred them up with a mower.

I can add my anecdotal support 100%! I made 4 new beds last winter. And in one I tried an experiment where I laid a really thick layer of the godawful 50tons of leaves my neighbors trees dump into our yard constantly. I didn't work it in, I didn't mess with it I just threw it on, let it set, and I planted in it (under) roughly in May. One year later, about 75% is completely broken down and the soil looks amazing!! So much better than the plots where I did not do this. I have a problem with grass weeds which take time to eliminate, but other weeds are not an issue.

Always good to be reminded of the natural ways of doing things :)

Wow, this is a great video with explanation to keep things simple. I really appreciate the easy breakdown of this topic and all of the visual comparisons. I have lots of leaves and used them to cover the beds before the snow. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them in the spring and now I know. I was so worried they'd turn anaerobic. Much thanks. I appreciate your addressing the jumping worms. I don't have them here, yet, and am trying to be proactive so they don't arrive via fish bait dumps to the garden or compost worm order.

In 2021, there will be a lot fewer leaf bags for the yard waste disposal company to pick up from my house. Not sure I can use all the leaves, but I will try. Between this and creating leaf mold and compost, I will be off to a good start Thank you for the video.

Great video! You just earned another subscriber! More power to your channel! Watching from the Philippines 🇵🇭

I just mulched leaves today with the lawnmower. Looks like I'm on the right path. Thanks for the video.

New sub. Thank you for this video. I've been working on improving my clay soil for a while now. By adding amendments, worm casting, and now leaving the leaves in my garden beds. It doesn't look the greatest right now, but I'm hoping it will help!

I agree with all this even form a raised bed perspective. I tried straw, alfalfa, pine straw with some leaves, and just straight leaves, the pine straw with leaves offered the best immediate water retention, but the straight leaves did the best for soil quality.

I live in central Illinois and we have fantastic soil. My home was built in 1955 and the developer (my wife’s father) did not scrape off the native soil. I’ve done a lot to build even better soil. You don’t find clay until you get down 10 inches. They say it takes a century to build an inch of topsoil when it happens naturally. I don’t have that kind of time. I’m 67 but I still managed to plant 1000 tulip bulbs this fall. The leaves on top really helps the worms. It gives them a reason to come up and eat.

Great video on the value of leaf mulch. We always wish we had more, it's always surprising how much it shrinks down when you make a batch.

Feeling validated... I started collecting neighborhood leaves this fall, and dumping them in my desert backyard. I imagined my kids would think I was nuts, but they approve. And now I can also show them this. Looking forward to the results, and already planning to get more leaves next year.

Damn, this is a GREAT video!

I like with your video is offering it is very good information keep up the good work I used to chop and drop it works for me I love it but keep up the great work

I started doing this last fall. Best thing I’ve ever done for my garden beds. When I pulled back the leaves this sprint the soil was jet black and my plants did really well.

I appreciate that you show comparisons as time evolves from one year to the next. Most vlogs show putting something together and never show results. I gathered 72 bags of leaves this year. I'm trying many different things. Composting in the bag, tumbling, some in the garden, and then some emptied in the chicken run. They are all experiments to see what happens. The one problem I have here is wind. One day I dumped leaves for the chickens to scratch through. The next morning after a windy night, no leaves. (I use the same 2x4 welded wire fence.) That wasn't helpful. In one garden bed where I put leaves, I covered with garden cloth and put rocks on it to keep it from blowing away. It will be interesting to see what it looks like when I uncover in the spring. One question. In many, many youtube videos, the vlogger states, "The worms will come." If the yard starts out as all clay and there are not worms, where do they come from? Thanks for sharing your trade "secrets" to help us newbies!

Awesome video. My family friend has for years done the same as you but tilled the remaining layer into the soil in the spring with no adverse effects. Their sunlight situation isn’t ideal but the rich soil gives them success with just about everything they grow. I’m trying this but plan on covering the leaf layer with a layer of compost in early spring to finish the job.

I've never really known what compost was exactly but this was a helluva informative video. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks ! I really dig this info 🌿😎

As longs as you are positive that the leaves come from a disease free tree leaf mulch is great. But if those trees have any disease the spores can be in the leaves and composting will not kill all the spores, some spores remain viable for 10-20 years waiting for a plant to be present to infect. The disease then spreads to the plant , goes up to the leaves and the cycle starts again. So inspect the trees carefully during the summer and be sure they are healthy before collecting leaves.

Re: black walnut - compost the leaves separately for 6mo. and you should be good to go.

I'm here for the May 2021 update ;) good job, nice quick format, would love to see the ongoing results !

The compost/soil amendment content is awesome

Black raspberries do well under black walnut tree's, if you have walnut leaves mulch your black raspberries with them.

Im in my mid 70s and i half collected leaves for many years, a good video my friend. two best things you can do to break down leaves are coffee grounds and urine. Drink a couple of pints of water which is very good for you anyway and your leaves will thank you for the big Boost of nitrogen. Keep up the good work.

Wow, that is very impressive. Thank you so much for sharing that. God bless you and yours.

Lots of good info in this well done video. Thanks!!

Keep the mulch deep enough and you will never have to weed your garden.

I too use all the leaves I can get my hands on. Just an observation about your turning the leaves. I think this is appropriate during a hot composting phase but after that decomposition is mostly fungal and by turning at that stage you might be actually harming the mycelium and slowing decomposition. Maybe after the initial heating it would actually be better not to disturb the leaves. Less work too.

Awesome. I feel the same way about leaves!

Thank you so much for this. I've always been a flower gardener, but have not grown many vegetables, other than tomatoes, jalapenos and green onions...until last year. I grew a variety of different veggies, with varying success. Vine borers and squash bugs hit me hard. I also realised that my soil could use improvement and that coastal Bermuda grass is just impossible to keep out of my garden beds (central Texas) *sigh. I had the idea that leaves from my woods might be an answer to my problem. That is when I searched and found your video. Thank you again for all the details. The best of luck with your garden. I'm now subscribed and look forward to more.

I put 2ft of leaves on my garden every year for the past 3 years. The soil is great,full of worms and bugs.

On my landscape I only use leaf mulch ... been doing that for the past 10 or so years ... Mostly flowers and shrubs ... however I do have three tomato plants that grow really tall with nice tomatoes so many that I have to share them with my neighbor .... Unfortunately I have to buy my mulch ---- Bummer ... !!!

cool video! Makes me realize I should be mulching my leaves on my lawn in the fall.

YES. Came here to pat myself on the back haha. Been mulching with leaves and it's a game changer.

Just imagine if people left the leaves pile up in the backyard to improvement on the soil.

I have a small pecan orchard. (36 trees) I had read that pecan trees and their leaves, wood mulch and even roots may have similar compound as black walnut. I do have a large mulberry tree, couple of ash trees and a few fruit trees I can use but very difficult to keep leaves separated with the wind. I am a novice gardener and just beginning. Any comments or advice?

I own a pickup truck but it would have taken me five trips to acquire all the stuff you got in one. Very helpful video: I've been looking for a better mulch for some of my plants and your advice about the wheat straw solved that search. For Dale: Bite him, buddy, for taunting you when you're such a good, well-behaved dog!

Great video. Thanks for the info. Would love more of these.

Do yourself a favor and get some wood chips! You'll accellerate what you're trying to do by 10x. I went from sand to deep organic soil in less than 2 years.

We laid flattened cardboard boxes down onto our flower beds and piled mulch on 2 years ago. Barely a weed. We started a new bed with cardboard and we mowed the millions of leaves and put that on the new area along with some store bought mulch. We were able to use both the leaves and mulch by staggering out...our purchases of the mulch in the new bed. Your video is helpful....to remind us to utilize the shredded leaves more and more. Thanks, Ahna

Excellent!!! I have used Chipdrop in addition to the leaves, and do also bury food wastes in the soil. My soil is becoming MULCH better!!!

Very well done detailed video,much appreciated...